In the year 1796, Edward Jenner, a physician, and scientist facilitated an event that would change a scientific paradigm forever: he created the first smallpox vaccine. He discovered that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox from cows udders were not susceptible to smallpox since cowpox and smallpox were similar enough in genetic composition. Knowing this, he made a serum that contained a weak version of cowpox and granted immunity from smallpox to those who had not contracted it. This vaccine has saved millions upon millions of lives since its invention (Ballarlo). Jenner’s invention proved to be a success; in 1980 smallpox had been officially eradicated (Ballarlo). In that time, many other vaccines had been invented in hopes of eradicating them as well . These vaccines include rabies, plague, cholera, typhoid fever, diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis, tetanus, yellow fever, influenza, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, and anthrax (Ballarlo).
One would think with such a revolutionary, and lifesaving idea, a large majority of people would praise it highly. For the most part, this has been the case; since 1999 vaccination rates have been at ninety-five percent or higher (Vaccination). Experts say that in order to keep our herd immunity high, which is the general immunity to a disease in a population based on the acquired immunity to it by a high proportion of members, the vaccination rate must be at least ninety-five percent to avoid breakouts of preventable diseases. However, within the last few years properly timed vaccination rates have plummeted by ten to fifteen percent (Glanz 2). More people than ever do not want to be vaccinated or have their children vaccinated. In fact, “national survey data shows that greater than 20% of parents have concerns about the safety of childhood vaccinations” (Glanz 2). Reading this data left me absolutely appalled. I strongly believe that children and adults should be vaccinated, which leaves me wondering how so many people could disagree. I am aware that vaccines have caused harm, but when contrasted with the harm they have been put in place to prevent, the good outweighs the bad. Whether people decide whether they want a flu shot is not what I will be concerned with. I want to know why people, primarily parents, do not want them or their children to receive state-mandated vaccinations from life-threatening diseases. This is why I set out to find why so many parents have become so distrusting of vaccines, who is it that has these concerns, present scientific evidence to shed light on their confusion, and infer from that what caused parents and the scientific community to experience this paradigm shift.
According to Jason M. Glanz, a researcher for the Institute for Health Research as well as a medical researcher at Kaiser Permanente, many parents may be receiving their information about vaccines on the internet: “There are … numerous parenting blogs and discussion forums that promote conversations about vaccines among online communities of anonymous users” (4). I decided the best way to comprehend their understanding of vaccines was to find their personal opinions, their justification for these opinions, and then provide evidence that either proves them right or debunks their argument entirely.
A website called Vaccination Liberation with a tagline that reads “Free your mind… From the vaccination paradigm”(Cassel), has a plethora of information, from how to receive vaccination exceptions, to how to become active in the “vaccine hesitant”(Glanz 2) community. However, the most relevant information is in an article titled “Basic Facts to Know about Vaccinations”. In this bulleted article, the author Ingri Cassel, whose credentials could not be determined, goes over her understanding of the facts about vaccines. Cassel is a strong believer that “[v]accines are toxic”, claiming that they contain chemicals “poisonous to humans (i.e mercury, formaldehyde, aluminum, etc.)”. This is partly true. Robert J. Mitkus, who works for the Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research states that in 2001, his research team found that some vaccines given to infants had higher levels of thimerosal (a mercury derivative) than allowed by the EPA (9). He goes on to say, however, that today the only vaccine with thimerosal is inactivated influenza and it has such minute traces that it is virtually harmless, and most definitely not toxic.